Editor’s Note: The Curse of Longevity
By Bob Keaveney This film, one of my childhood favorites, was on my mind in October when Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, offered up a caustic remark during a forum on the state of American healthcare economics: “I suppose the best thing, economically, would be if everyone lived a healthy life until the age of about 75, then got hit by a car.”
Reischauer was only half-joking. Among the reams of sobering statistics he brought with him was this: For every U.S. healthcare dollar spent on the average 35- to 44-year-old, about $4.50 is spent on the average person aged 75 and older. (His presentation, along with mine and others, can be found at the Web site of St. Louis’ Signature Healthcare Foundation, by clicking the 2007 policy forum link under the events tab.)
This phenomenon, though seemingly self-evident, is relatively new. In 1953, Reischauer noted, the difference in spending between those two age groups was almost zero.
American healthcare has become a victim of its own success. In 1953 living to 75 was the mark of good genes and clean livin’, and not many folks made it that long. (Average life expectancy was about 68 in the early ’50s.) Today, if you can avoid runaway Toyota Highlanders, you’ll probably last well into your Golden Years. And while it’s perfectly reasonable for people to expect active medical intervention to delay and diminish the physical decline that typically accompanies those years, it’s clear that that intervention also extends the number of years that most people spend in decline before death. Continued...
